From poutine to dumplings and garlic to bacon, food festivals bring communities together. Pleasure seekers gather with a common goal: To happily stuff their faces. But as recent instances of all-you-can-eat pizza festivals running out of pies and cheese events notably devoid of dairy illustrate, when food fests fail, they fail hard. Real hard. Word spreads quickly and widely as disgruntled attendees air their dissatisfaction on social media, with the most spectacular fails making headlines around the world.

Attendees at Toronto’s Mattyfest this past weekend were the latest to voice their disappointment at being underfed. As blogTO reports, grumbles of sold-out food stalls began at around 7 p.m. on Saturday, roughly six hours into the festivities with at least four hours to go. Despite having some of Central Canada’s best chefs running the pass, there was apparently “nowhere near enough food.” Tickets for the music and food festival — created by chef and Viceland star Matty Matheson, and headlined by Wu-Tang Clan — ranged in price from $74.50 for general admission to $450 for “Matty Matheson x Charlie’s Burgers: A Dinner Extravaganza.”

Adding to the frustration of festivalgoers was that vendors — American pitmasters who travelled from New York, Tennessee and North Carolina, Toronto restaurants such as Buca, Imanishi Japanese Kitchen and Le Swan, and Montreal’s Le Bremner, Chez Tousignant and Maison Publique — were only accepting “Matty Money” (a.k.a. “Matty Bucks”) in exchange for food and merchandise. Reports on social media indicated that Matty Money was still being sold despite the lack of food available. While initially reported as nonrefundable, the festival posted a “Matty Money Advisory” at around 10:15 p.m., which directed people to go to the box office before exiting to exchange their unused currency for a cash refund. Some people expressed frustration at the notice coming so late — they had already left the venue with tokens in their pockets. Live Nation, which backed the event, did not respond to a request for comment.

Given that the purpose of a food festival is to provide sustenance for a sum, the ire of hungry hordes facing “Sold Out” signs is understandable. Shortages can certainly be the result of poor planning or inexperience, but organizers and vendors — even the most accomplished — face significant headwinds. An uncertain turnout can wreak havoc, especially in nascent events, and balancing supply and demand in an industry that operates on such notoriously slim profit margins is a challenge.

“As an event organizer, you are indirectly responsible for food supply,” says Salima Jivraj, founder of Halal Food Festival Toronto, and client director and multicultural lead at Nourish Food Marketing. “You’re creating an opportunity for other businesses to profit and market themselves, but as an organizer, you’re still responsible for managing the vendors because they will be representing your brand. Making sure you work with vendors to iron out contingencies and get them as prepared as possible is critical. I hear about many events selling space and then leaving vendors to figure things out themselves. There’s an assumption that if you own a restaurant, you know how to do an event. But that’s not the case.”

The Halal Food Festival Toronto works with vendors to create plans and provides resources: Connecting them with commercial kitchens near the venue, and providing cold storage and a cooking area on-site. “This way, if they start sensing that they’re going to run out of food earlier than expected, they have a plan in place to ensure they can keep up with the demand,” adds Jivraj.

According to Rodney Bowers — professor, coordinator and culinary ambassador for Centennial College — an event’s ability to sufficiently feed its guests comes down to logistics, and effective communication between organizers and vendors. Representing his now closed Toronto restaurant Hey Meatball, Bowers has been a food vendor at many large-scale events, including Pride Toronto, Toronto’s Festival of Beer and the Green Living Show.

“Event management, it’s a real deal. People do it because they’re great at it. Whether they’re in the hotel business or whether it’s the jazz fest, there’s a lot of work and a lot of planning that goes into these things. And when you don’t have the know-how or the wherewithal and you think you can plan one on a whim, like (the 2014 meltdown at the Toronto) Grilled Cheese Fest, you’re going to get your ass handed to you,” laughs Bowers. “When you’re going to hear about them the worst is these people that have one-offs. You probably have a team who has never run a festival before or maybe they threw a rave in the ’90s. They’re like, ‘I organized our grad party,’ whatever that is.”

Waste and sustainability also presents a potential obstacle when it comes to vendors having enough food at hand. At one point during the festival, Mattyfest blasted social media with an explanation for the food shortage: “Committed to sustainability, we prepped limited quantities of our menu items to eliminate food waste.” The message wasn’t well received by those with Matty Money to spare, as attendees blamed organizers and vendors equally. It should be noted that if organizers instruct vendors to prepare 400 portions for a certain amount of money, that’s what they’re likely to bring; no more, no less. Food that’s tossed in the bin at the end of the night is tied directly to lost profits.

“Food waste is a real issue at events. It has been estimated that 30 per cent of the food produced for an average event ends up as waste. Many event producers and chefs are serious about sustainability, wanting to create less waste, and reduce the environmental impact of their events,” says David Tikkanen, program head for tourism management at the BCIT School of Business, adding that some organizers have started to ask ticket buyers to pre-purchase meals as a means of mitigating loss.

“It can be a lot of trial and error in order to get this right, The Stop’s Night Market is going into its ninth year and we still worry about the right amount of food to satisfy the crowd,” says Cara Goodman, The Stop’s senior development officer. “Food waste is a huge issue at events and we support limiting as much waste as possible. Many of the dishes or ingredients the chefs prepare at The Stop’s Night Market can be reincorporated into their regular restaurant menu (as long as food is transported, handled and stored properly).”

Although it’s the poorly managed, one-shot events that we increasingly see popping up in our feeds, they’re vastly outnumbered by well-run, established festivals that satisfy guests year after year. Running a food event is a multi-faceted proposition rife with pitfalls. With the exception of negligent individuals set on a cash grab for all-you-can-eat grilled cheese, those involved can be afforded some leeway for minor hiccups. Whether Mattyfest will learn from its first-year missteps and come back stronger next year remains to be seen. While the food supply might have lacking, the music was reportedly on point.